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Peck & Peck

by Bonnie Garmus

Poetry, power, and paper in 1982 New York

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Awards & Recognition

  • Editorial selection

    Oprah Daily Best Book of the Fall

    Named a Best Book of the Fall by Oprah Daily.

AlbakiReads Editorial

Poetry, power, and paper in 1982 New York

In 1982, recent graduate Batter Gray has an unusually specific talent—an ear for poetry—and few obvious ways to use it. A job at the prestigious journal Peck & Peck brings him into a workplace shaped by the rivalry of its twin editors-in-chief and the practices of its thirty-nine editors. The publishing setting gives the novel room to play with questions of originality, creative judgment, plagiarism, and who gets to decide what deserves to be published. Its comic premise is rooted in the contrast between poetry’s high-minded ideals and the journal’s eccentric, tightly controlled operation.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Those interested in fictional publishing houses and literary workplaces.
  • Readers who enjoy comic fiction centered on creative fields and workplace rivalries.
  • Readers curious about poetry, editorial judgment, and originality as subjects in fiction.

Themes

Creativity and originalityEditorial power and literary judgmentWorkplace rivalryPlagiarism and integrity

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

A BEST BOOK OF THE FALL FOR OPRAH DAILY AND TIME

A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE, COUNTRY LIVING, AND BOOKPAGE

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of global sensation Lessons in Chemistry returns with an irresistible, delightful, and tender literary novel set in the publishing world of 1980s New York City about a young man whose life turns upside down when he is hired by the most prestigious, secretive, and dysfunctional poetry journal in the world: the renowned Peck & Peck.

Find originality. Reward creativity. Burn the rest.

It's 1982, New York City. Crime is on the rise, muggings are in the streets, and Batter Gray, recent college graduate with a skill that no one wants--an "ear" for poetry--is worried about his future. While all of his friends have real jobs, he's folding T-shirts at the Gap. As for love? No. Not unless you count Sallie Mae, the student loan tyrant. He hears from Sallie all the time.

But when Batter gets a dream job at Peck & Peck, the most prestigious poetry quarterly in the world, his life moves into the literary fast lane. Soon Batter is knee-deep in the secret war between the two Editors in Chief, the famous Peck brothers--twins and enemies--as well as being privy to the private affairs of their thirty-nine editors, whose professed mission is the same: Find originality. Reward creativity. Burn the rest.

And by burn, they mean incinerate. Because at Peck & Peck, "good" isn't good enough, "interesting" doesn't cut it, plagiarists aren't tolerated, and parolees run the mailroom. Still want to submit your poem? Go with God.

Welcome to another dazzling and unforgettable novel from Bonnie Garmus. If you loved Lessons in Chemistry, you will love Peck & Peck.
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